In recent years IF has migrated many of its operations to online platforms. As a non profit, efforts began as cost saving measures. Now, video-conference platforms, merged calendars, communication via social media platforms is just as efficient as effective....
Ia Natsvlishvili was a participant in the 50-Hour Training Course in the IF Discussion Process that IF Fellows Mark Notturno and Ieva Notturno conducted in Washington DC last Spring for Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP) scholars. After successfully...
When many faculty hear the term “student-centered discussion,” they imagine students leading a “discussion” that is really just a bull session. In fact, this is typically the sort of discussion that happens when faculty allocate small-group discussion time in...
There’s a lot of talk these days—as there’s always been—about reforming higher education. One of the more popular ideas getting a lot of play is that doing away with the disciplines will fix what’s wrong with the system. The disciplines are maligned for being...
So much of what goes on under the name of political discussion is aimed at persuading people to accept certain public policies. And so much of what goes on in facilitated public policy discussions is aimed at bringing a group to consensus. This is not the aim of...
The Perspectives articles exploring IF in the classroom have, thus far, largely articulated the benefits of our student-centered approach on student learning, interaction, retention, and skill development (leadership, communication, etc.). It is important that we...
What is the future of a college education in the USA? The recent economic downturn seems to have sharpened the already well-known trend toward seeing a college education largely in terms of enhancing one's economic security. And as our uncertain economic times...
Now that it's been well over a month since my last post, it's hard to know how to sum up all the things that have happened. I'll start at the conclusion: Thursday was the last day of my IF course. All 15 of our first-year seminars are invited to participate in...
After reading Maria's recent post about what she will do next with her IF class now that they are not in their original groups, I realize that I feel I'm at a bit of a crossroads with my class as well. Tomorrow is our last small group discussion on the question...
This week is a short week in my IF class, Art: I Know It When I See It. We had only one class meeting, since it's fall break, so I had to make the most of it. First, I've already had to overhaul my syllabus - the groups' progress has been slower than I had...